Next weekend, local ballet dancers will join a touring troupe from the Ukraine to perform a holiday show in Havre de Grace ? despite never training together or speaking to each other directly.
The Nov. 25 performance of “The Nutcracker,” at Havre de Grace High School, will feature the Donetsk Ballet and the Maryland Conservatory of Music?s Chamber Orchestra alongside 50 local dancers in a fundraiser for Harford County?s Center for the Arts. The Donetsk dancers will not get to work with the locals until the night of the performance, said Tom Kunkel, promoter for the event.
“Typically they?d be charging $130 a ticket for a large, Meyerhoff-type venue. ? So this is really a first-time thing for them,” Kunkel said.
The Donetsk troupe is internationally renowned, rivaling the Bolshoi and Kirov troupes,said Sallee Kunkel-Filkins, Tom Kunkel?s sister and executive director of the Center for the Arts. The lead dancers, husband and wife Vadim Pisarev and Inna Dorofeyeva, are among the best in their field, Filkins said.
Chamber Orchestra conductor Vladimir Lande had connections to members of Donetsk and helped bring them to Harford County for the event, which is an honor given the troupe?s reputation, Filkins said. Lande will also translate between the two groups, as few of the Ukranian dancers are fluent in English, said Kunkel.
The Donetsk troupe will also be providing parts of the set and all the costumes, said choreographer Martha Valentine, so last-minute changes might be made Saturday.
Though they have yet to meet the Donetsk troupe, the local dancers have been practicing since the summer with a CD and DVD provided by the Ukrainian group, Filkins said. The locals range in age from 6 years old to teenagers and will take some of the less-demanding parts of the traditional holiday ballet.
Proceeds from the show will go toward building a permanent Center for the Arts facility in Harford County, Kunkel said.
The county is currently the only one in the Baltimore region without a facility for cultural education, performances and exhibitions, Filkins said, so studies are currently underway to determine the needs and feasibility of building such a center.
Two performances will be given before the Donetsk troupe continues its tour: a matinee at 2 p.m. and an evening show at 7 p.m.
Tickets will be $35 for adults and $20 for students, and can be purchased through the Center for the Arts, the Maryland Conservatory for Music, Preston?s Stationary in Bel Air, MusicLand and BomBoys. For more information, call 410-734-4320.
